After setting up the stem,keelson and transom, the first strips go on. We elected to use narrow plastic strips which guide the cedar strips into place. As well, these pieces also serve to prevent the screws from denting the wood and provide an alignment guide for the screw holes which will be visible later.

It takes more time to fasten the cedar strips with drywall screws; this proved necessary as staples simply don't have the holding power required to hold the 3/8' x 1 1/4" cedar strips.

You need two sets of hands to build this boat. Here, Bob Ireland slides the next plank into place.

We found that each strip required a differeent finesse as the hull was planked. The twist changes from horizontal at the transom's turn of the bilge to vertical at the stem.

Removing as much glue as possible at this point saves a lot of work later-Bob and I learned this while building our canoes last year.

Two of Ron's 'groupies' having some fun at our expense while hiding out from their wives and real jobs!

We have emoved most of the screws inserted earlier and are now continuing to plank the bottom of the hull.

Although it was close, Bob lost the bet that he could drive in a screw with a "red Robbie" than me with a 14v Makita.

Here, Bob twists and hold the strip in place for fastening. You can get a sense of how much force is required to properly position the strip. In fact, we were able to plank the hull with very little gaping between the strips-thanks Bob!

Getting close on the port side.

The port side is closed in to the centreline.

Here we are closing the starboard side planking.Those final few strips take the longest as each has to be trimmed to fit.

With help from my friend John Stonehouse, we began the process of fairing the hull using only a spokeshave.

After the several hours of spokeshaving were complete, we used an epoxy-wood flour thickened mix to fill in small voids and the screw holes.

The sanding process is a bit messy but this is the step which transforms the hull into a smooth constantly curving surface.

I elected to use 10 ounce fibreglass cloth on the hull. In order to cover the entire surface, we had to use two pieces, each 50" wide and joined along the midline.

Now, with the second piece of cloth in place, we were ready to start the long process of laying on the epoxy resin.

We started the resin about 24" from the transom so that one end would be "wetted out" quickly and we would then have only one wet edge to keep advancing.